#now i think about it he and gordon had incredible chemistry and it might have been a way of working on my edward and gordon ask

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Oho, 17 and 18 are both interesting ones~ (Your favourite character to write this year? & The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?)

Ask game

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

Hmm...! Toby and Donald have both been super rewarding. I know I carped about the process of working with them a lot - I felt pressured because my problems with them emerged only after I started publishing a fic that people were reading. But! I did enjoy the "problem" of working with them. I'd never written them very much before but they wound up with more screentime cos I found I really liked them.

They wound up adding a lot of depth to the story, cos neither wishes to get dragged into #Drama. But they're also both quite well-equipped to handle it, when they are. 😈

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

I was having some difficulty with Thomas and Gordon early in the year, specifically sketcing out where they land at the end of Small World. They had to be quintessentially #Them, even though they're in an alt-timeline and some heavy stuff has gone down and their relationship can't be the same as how we know it. But it still has to be recognizable. Very so.

Was pulling out my hair for a few weeks, but once I finally produced good copy for them I was basically ready to start my second draft/publishing!

Ironically, Toby with Henrietta was a also bit of a speed-bump. Too straight-married-couple coded for my blood! Again, once I got the hang of it things were fine (writing Henrietta's reaction to Toby's two near-fistfights in Ch. 5 was fun) but it certainly required a few runs before I got my wheels under me.

[bread-tab]

i saw The Batman (2022) in theaters last week. went in with low expectations. loved it. had an existential crisis afterward :)

(putting a read more here because spoilers, megalomaniacal ranting, etc.)

it's a very pretty movie with a lot of cinematic artistry (that scene with the flare? omg). they unapologetically made Gotham a parody of dark 20th century NYC where it's constantly raining while somehow making 21st century culture and technology fit seamlessly into the picture and i want to live there please (the city of my dreams). they explored some deep, relevant themes without getting anvilicious. the character writing and acting were great; lots of chemistry, arcs and conflicts that made sense. fun. ridiculous. took itself seriously despite the absurdity, but not *too* seriously.

the pacing of the movie was a little funky (third act was all over the place, idk if the whole thing even *fits* a traditional 3-act structure) but i don't care because they've created a Batman who is enough of an insane, badass weirdo that for the first time, i can almost believe the whole "i am vengeance, i am the night, i beat up criminals in my armored fursuit" shtick could work in real life and be taken seriously. and at the same time they made Bruce Wayne a scrunkly emo disaster nerd who was raised by an ex-spy butler and it shows. peak interpretation of the character. and Jim Gordon in this movie is my favorite person in the universe and their friendship is perfection incarnate.

this was a good movie. i loved it. and i DEEPLY regret having seen it.

i have been thinking about it and reading a ton of Batman, Batfam, and Justice League fanfiction all week and getting sucked into batblorbo hell. this is how i consume media. but in the midst of that process i realized...

i did *not* need to see Batman as a depressed autistic millennial with a bizarre, idealistic life mission he hyperfixates on at night instead of sleeping

do you know how much effort i have to put in daily to *not do that*???

ffs

i did not need those tendencies validated

BATMAN IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE RELATABLE

and the deeper into the rabbit hole (batcave) of Bat-content i go the more i realize that he's been like this all along and i've been narrowly dodging this fate for a solid decade. i only escaped this when i got into superhero stories in 2011 because i imprinted on Martian Manhunter instead. (my underappreciated green son <3)

unfortunately, i too am the sort of person who, under the right circumstances, would try to solve the world's problems by dressing up in a ridiculous costume and fighting crime at 3 a.m. while having a dramatic inner monologue about justice. (especially if i had kept up with my martial arts lessons when i was 19. good grief. i guess there's a bright side to failing at that.) i, too, would be physically unable to stop myself from adopting half a dozen orphans, hiding them under my cape, and allowing them to live out their incredibly weird aspirations. (heck i would do that right now if i actually had money and my own house and wasn't quite so depressed)

one time i was discussing my struggles with mental illness with my dad and mentioned that i have no idea what my life would be like now if i hadn't had his and mom's support growing up. i have no idea where i'd be. i might be dead. but on the other hand—what i have not told my dad is—i'm also extremely stubborn, have a very strong will to survive, and spent my entire childhood really wanting to get into a righteous fistfight with someone who deserved it and being disappointed when the opportunity never presented itself. i could...genuinely...have decided to become some sort of ridiculous costumed vigilante, given the means. (so this being real life that's two points toward ending up dead.)

and um. even though i do have parents and am aware that this is real life. i refuse to admit how many times (and until what age) i still put *real consideration* into what it would take to be some sort of freelance private eye/vigilante/inventor/actual magician in real life. (physically and, you know, *legally.*)

so...with that context...

there is a part of me that is very grounded and realistic and cynical. does anything i do really make a difference? if i push myself to my limits, get better, and try to make the world a better place, will it mean anything? there's a lot of shame, despair, and self-loathing in there. this is the part of me that is depressed.

there is also a part of me which is stubborn, brazenly honest and weird and unyieldingly hopeful. if there is light in the darkness, i will find it. if there is none, i will make it. i will *become* it. creativity, determination, empowerment. that is the core of who i really am.

demon on my left shoulder. angel on my right.

there are two wolves inside you and the one thing they agree on is BOTH OF THEM REALLY WANT TO BE THE FUCKING BATMAN

*head in hands*

boy. you are broke. you have the upper-body strength of dry spaghetti. you *know* there is no one you can punch to solve crime, poverty, or world hunger. you know the dramatic angsty way of doing things is, above all other considerations, inefficient. you KNOW that your best shot at making the kind of difference you want is to drag yourself back to college and become a social worker, run for some form of public office or other leadership position, and/or get involved in one or more mutual aid/activist/charity movements. All of which require leaving the house IN THE DAYTIME and developing fucking social skills!

...god it would be so much easier to be batman.

(and that's why bruce wayne is relatable, thank you for coming to my TED talk)

so yeah i have no idea to explain all that nonsense to my therapist, but on the bright side, i have a great new way to motivate myself.

"what would Batman do in this situation?"

"..." *sigh* "he'd get up and fold the goddamn laundry."

(except when it backfires)

"in this situation Batman would stay up all night and investigate!"

"NO."

[lizartgurl]

Perfect Marks (Aqualad x OC Soulmate AU)

Word Count: 6200+

Summary: Write something on your skin, it appears on your soulmate’s skin as well

My sole goal of joining tumblr was to make decent Kaldur content and this shows it. I don’t think I’ve ever written anything this fast-paced, and I had no idea a one-shot would turn out this long, but I really enjoyed writing it!

Based off of @the-shadow-of-atlantis‘s soulmate au for Kaldur and her oc, Annabella (x) and inspired by @writing-yj‘s The Bird Tattoo xreader  series (x). You guys are both incredible writers, and I love reading your fanfics :)

@staar-sailorr @super-spoiler @lesbianstargirl @flamebiirds @princes-jasmine (please let me know if any of you do not want to be tagged in my oc fics in the future. i’m just tagging you for now becuz)

The morning of her first day of high school, Emma Grayson screamed.

Half of Gotham must have heard it, if not the entire manor. Rick, just down the hall, skid right into the bathroom door trying to help.

“Emma, what is it?”

“Just look!” Emma shrieked, shoving her arm in his face. Her little brother's eyes went wide at the thick black marks winding up and down both her arms.

“You and Roy went out clubbing last night and didn't bring me?” He asked, with a twinkle in his eye.

“Well how do you know we didn't sneak Wally with us?” Emma snapped.

He shrugged, leaning against the doorway with an insufferable smirk that he couldn't hide. “Wally and I are too tight for him to leave me out of any shenanigans.”

Bruce materialized in the doorway before Emma could smack Rick, and sighed as he saw the marks on her arms.

“You don't remember getting any tattoos yesterday?” He asked.

“No.” Emma shook her head.

“And you're not hungover, so you probably wouldn't have blacked out,” he murmured, taking Emma's arm in his hands to examine the marks. “Do they hurt at all?”

Emma shrugged. “They itch a little, but not painfully.”

Bruce nodded. “They must be your soulmate's markings then. Probably tattoos.”

Emma sighed. She herself wasn’t very artistic, so she never would have drawn something so elaborate on herself, but she never took into account that her soulmate might be. And if they were tattoos, that meant that even if her soulmate showered five times a day, they would never come off of either of them. Emma was absolutely terrified of needles and vowed to never get a tattoo. She never thought she'd be paired with someone who got those giant sleeve tattoos, much less tattoos at all.

“Get dressed, make sure you don't have anymore. Richard, you go get dressed too. I'll see you both downstairs for breakfast in a minute.” Bruce instructed.

Emma locked the door behind them and bravely faced her reflection in the silver-framed mirror. They each started on her hands, snake heads, with no embellishments other than an eye and an open mouth. The snakes then twisted around her arms three times and continued on to her shoulders. After taking off her PJs and turning around a couple times, she found that they connected, arcing down to her lower back.

A few minutes and a couple puffy eyes later, she met Bruce in the dining room, taking her usual place across from Rick.

“For you, Miss Emma.” In addition to her breakfast platter of eggs and bacon, Alfred handed Emma a jar of concealer that matched her skin tone.

Bruce wiped his chin of jelly from his toast. “With tattoos of this size, keeping them hidden is vital to your secret identity. Not only would people try to replicate the tattoos to claim to be your soulmate, they would also connect Finch and Emma Grayson with the similar tattoos.”

Emma nodded, and began to apply the concealer to the back of her hands. Her school uniform and her Finch uniform already had long sleeves in case of such a situation. Now the rest of her wardrobe would follow suit. At least Gotham was miserable, cold, and wet ninety-nine percent of the time.

Alfred dropped Emma and Rick off at Gotham Academy before taking Bruce to the WayneTech offices, and Bruce made a big show of seeing his children off on their first day of a new school year for the all-seeing public eye.

“We can look more into them tonight, Emma. How about that?” He offered with a winning smile, a last attempt to cheer her up.

“Sure,” she smiled back. Rick had already run off for the building with the middle school classes. Emma was moving up to the high school building this year, with grades nine through twelve.

She plopped into the open seat between Barbara Gordon and Lucas Fox in first-period chemistry.

“Hey, Emma! How you doing?” Babs asked, sounding peppy and upbeat.

“Long morning.” She groaned.

“As always on the first day of school, huh?” Luke asked with a chuckle.

Emma giggled too. Her friends knew just how to cheer her up, even if they didn't know what was going on.

“Emma?” Barbara was squinting at her hands, “Are you wearing-”

“Good Morning!” The chem teacher trilled along with the bell, and Barbara forgot what she was going to say.

Head cushioned in her arms in the edge of the second row, Emma snuck a look at her two closest friends, who both had their sleeves rolled up to their elbows in the warm classroom. She had to settle for just taking off her sweater.

Luke and Barbara were the two smartest students in their grade at prestigious Gotham Academy, which rubbed off on Emma. They were both in the computer science club. Luke was in robotics club, and wanted to be an engineer like his father, Lucius Fox, head of the R&D department of WayneTech. Barbara's father was Police Commissioner James Gordon of the GCPD, and spent every spare moment in the library. Emma took to joining her, and Rick and Luke would join them.

Instead of paying attention to the long list of safety procedures that Doctor Crane was going over, Emma spent first period thinking over whether or not to tell her friends. Would someone overhear? Would they let things slip?

It would just have to be another secret she kept from them.

~

Bruce was gone from the time that they got home to late at night, so Emma persuaded Rick to help her look through all the books that the Manor’s library had on Soulmates and their markings, so long as they got to watch Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark while doing it.

Most of the books Emma read were general knowledge. Whenever you wrote or drew something on your skin, it appeared on your soulmate’s body as well. Mostly it was just notes and reminders, doodles in the midst of boredom, but tattoos were a popular tactic to try and find your soulmate quicker, by looking for the exact replica of your tattoo on someone else.

There were several books on the language of markings, symbols ranging from elaborate to simple that could send a certain message to your soulmate were they also well-versed in the language of markings. Emma didn’t find anything resembling her soulmate’s markings in any of those books, so she tossed them on the floor with Rick’s books, which had slid off his lap after he fell asleep shortly after Indy entered the Well of Souls.

Sighing tiredly, Emma shut off the TV, but the excitement of her soulmate’s markings and the first day of school all rolled into one left her exhausted, and she never wanted to leave the sunken cushions of her favorite TV couch.

Shrouded in night, the room faded into darkness. Emma removed her sweater to use a blanket, and stopped.

“Rick,” she whispered, jabbing him in the shoulder.

“Huh?” He asked, “Is the movie over?”

“You fell asleep, but look,” She held out her arms, bare beneath her t-shirt. The black, geometric shapes were now outlined by a faint blue glow, reflected on Emma’s face. The light itself seemed almost alive, and thought it could have been the lack of sleep, Emma thought she saw it swirling around the room, back and forth like an ocean’s current. Beautiful and powerful. Magical.

Rick laughed giddly. “That’s so cool!” He said, suddenly awake.

Emma laughed too. Maybe her soulmate’s markings weren’t so bad after all.

~

Weeks passed without them fading. Bruce had been right about them being tattoos. They itched like fresh tattoos, though the ink wasn’t in her skin. Alfred gave her a soothing skin balm to rub on her arms before she went to bed each night, guided by the blue lights. They made the perfect night light, though Emma had long since outgrown such things. She’d jolt awake from a nightmare, only to have the magical light envelop her with a tingling sensation somewhat like an electric shock. It was comforting, like a never-ending hug.

Sometimes, on patrol, when Bruce wasn’t looking, Emma would take off her glove and let the snake-head glow, smiling somewhat as she showed it all of Gotham City. Her soulmate must really like snakes, and if they cast the light that her tattoos did, maybe they were a magician like Zatara.

Emma desperately hoped that her soulmate was a hero. She wanted to be able to tell them everything, to share both parts of her life with her soulmate.

“Woah,” Wally gaped appreciatively as Emma showed off her right arm in the seclusion of a back alley in Star City, just outside the “Arrow-Cave,” or the “Quiver,” which Ollie was convinced would catch on.

Roy nodded, but from the way his lower lip jutted out as he slowly nodded, it was clear that he was impressed by whoever had etched these tattoos.

“Show us your tattoos again, Roy.” Emma said. She rolled her sleeve back down, cutting off the light.

Roy rolled up the right arm sleeve of his shirt, exposing the small constellation on his shoulder. The big dipper, or the bear and the birds according to those who had generously raised him. It was a permanent reminder of his childhood and what he had learned with them. After Emma smiled, he showed off the tattoo on his left shoulder. The one from his soulmate.

It was a perfect circle, a shield, he insisted, with the head of Medusa and several wriggling snakes spreading from the center. The Aegis, Athena’s shield. Obviously his soulmate had a penchant for Greek mythology.

“I’m thinking of getting a tattoo,” Wally lounged against the brick wall.

“Oh really? What would you get? A hot dog?” Rick asked, balancing in a handstand on top of the fence that cut the alleyway in half.

“Ha, ha.” Wally huffed, offended. “What would you get, Boy Wonder?” He demanded.

“A bird, duh.” He flipped in the air, landing neatly in front of Wally, “A robin, to be precise. Right behind the ear.”

“What about you, Emma?” Roy asked. “If you got a tattoo, what would you get?”

Emma leaned back on top of the trash can, using her arms to prop herself up. “Probably a music heart, with the treble and bass clefs twisted into the shape of a heart.” But she still wasn’t certain. That didn’t seem special enough compared to her soulmate’s tattoos, or Roy’s tattoo, but it was the best that she could come up with in two seconds.

Rick and Wally were still bickering. “So if it’s not a hot dog, what is it then? Nachos?”

“No! It’d be  the digits of pi, stretching from my right hand to my left, like Emma’s!”

“Nerd.”

“Geek.”

“Aren’t those the same thing?” Roy asked as the younger two continued to yell. He knew better than to expect an answer.

Emma shook her head, grinning at the secret she was keeping, this one more for her own amusement than out of necessity. Rick had sketched out where he wanted his tattoo earlier, and now it was hidden beneath his raven-colored mop. And when Wally had taken off his mask to eat some of Ollie’s cookies in the safety of the Quiver, Emma glimpsed a few wobbly sharpie lines in Rick’s non-artistic peeking out from under the bright red hair. Wally was too distracted to notice it for himself, and it was hidden beneath his lightning bolts whenever Rick had been looking at him.

The next day at school, chem class was cancelled because Doctor Crane was missing. Emma and Babs went to the library while Luke finished his homework in the computer lab. Alysia Yeoh wrote her phone number on Barbara’s hand in black pen as the three discussed Harry Potter and the New Hunger Games movie. Then in the middle of civics class, the same ten numbers jumped out at Emma, faint on the back of Luke’s writing hand and nearly made her spit out her strawberry lemonade.

She texted Roy in glee so she wouldn’t blurt out and ruin the surprise for Luke. He let her, though he wasn’t really the kid of person that got obsessed with soulmates.

Emma, however could not wait to meet her soulmate.

~

Batman called in Flash and Aquaman to help out with a new villain, calling himself “Scarecrow”. Finch was texting Roy with updates every five minutes, and managed to catch the end of Aquaman’s reply as the Batmobile roared towards the Harbor.

“I will be bringing an apprentice of sorts with me.”

“You have an apprentice?” Batman asked. His monotone betrayed no surprise.

“A recent development, I will admit. It will not be a problem, will it? I want to get him started as soon as possible, and after all, Flash and yourself have sidekicks of your own, as does Green Arrow, some of them younger than Aqualad.”

“I take it that’s his name, then?”

“I take it will be fine, then?”

Robin snorted. It wasn’t every day that they heard a member of the Justice League sassing Batman. Typically, Wonder Woman was the only person who could get away with that, on account of her lack of weaknesses. Aquaman may or may not pay for that comment sooner or later if he didn’t watch his back.

“Meet you at the rendezvous point.” Batman cut off the transmission, glaring at his kids in the mirror. Finch only shrugged back at him. Her tattoos were itching again.

Flash pulled up seconds before the Batmobile came to a complete stop.

“Ha! We were here first!” Robin cackled.

“Only counts if you’re out of the car, boy wonder,” Kid patted him on top of his head. Emma grumbled, wishing that Roy were here, so at least she wouldn’t feel like an outcast to their flirting. She pulled out her phone again.

“Finch, phone away. Scarecrow can track the signal.” Batman instructed. She shoved it securely in her belt pocket.

“So how long did Fish man say it’d take him?” Flash asked.

“He’s probably taking the scenic route to show Aqualad around,” Robin piped up.

“Aqualad?” It was Kid’s turn to be surprised now.

In answer, there was a splash from the docks, and Aquaman flew out of the water, crouching in a majestic landing a moment later. A smaller splash followed, with a much less graceful landing that nearly sent the poor “Aqualad” stumbling back into the water.

“Woah!” Finch lunged forward, grabbing his wrist.

“Th-thank you, my lady,” He fell over himself to find his balance, bowing as courteously as he could with sea legs.

“Oh, no worries!” Emma insisted. “And- and you can call me Finch, please.”

“Apologies,” He said immediately, “I am afraid I am not used to the surface yet, it is still very new to me.”

“You will get used to it, Kaldur’ahm,” Aquaman gave a broad smile, clapping his new protege on the shoulder.

“Robin, Kid Flash, I would like to introduce my protege, Aqualad.”

“Cool!” Kid sped over, nearly shoving Finch to the side to shake Aqualad’s hand. “I’m Kid Flash! The coolest superhero around, but you can call me Wally when we’re off-duty.”

Robin saluted. “I’m Robin. Call me Rob. And you’ve already met my sister, Finch.”

“Yes, I have. It is wonderful to meet all of you.”

“Well, there’s also Speedy, but his mentor has a hot date with Black Canary tonight so they’re all currently unavailable,” Kid Flash snickered as their mentors discussed the issue at hand.

Finch gave him an elbow in the gut. “So, Aqualad, how long have you been working with Aquaman?” She nodded towards the adults, and Aqualad followed her indication.

“How are you working with Aquaman?” Robin asked, “I didn’t know the guy had any kids.”

“He does not,” Aqualad assured him. “I am one of his subjects. About two weeks ago, Ocean Master and his followers attacked Atlantis. Though he appeared to best Aquaman, my friends and I, students at Her Majesty’s Conservatory of Sorcery, were able to distract Ocean Master long enough for our king to recover. To show his gratitude, he gave us the opportunity to become his protege. I was the only one who accepted. I have spent the past few weeks training with my king and learning more about the surface world, the dangers it faces, and the threats to Atlantis.”

“Hey, kids! Gather round!” Flash beckoned them over, and Emma groaned inwardly at being called kids. They were on the younger side of teenage years, yeah, but the work they did was anything but childish. Unless you were Wally, and then you could be immature about anything.

While the adults had the dangerous job of actually going in after Scarecrow, the kids were designated to the much less dangerous assignment of patrolling the perimeter to make sure that Scarecrow nor his recently-acquired henchmen got away.

Finch didn’t mind it that much, she could get away with being lazy when Batman wasn’t looking over her shoulder every second, but Kid and Robin were a little upset at being left behind. They mirrored each other, chin propped up in one hand each.

“Why did Batman need to call us in again?” Kid asked. “I mean, isn’t he always like, ‘Bleh bleh, I work alone, bleh bleh,” He imitated the dark and scratchy voice of a vampire.

“Scarecrow’s only weapon is his fear gas, and he’s trying to figure out how to transform that gas into a liquid to infect Gotham’s water supply, and maybe the whole coast, and he needs someone in forensics who can track the fear gas chemicals super-fast, like your uncle. I’m pretty sure Aquaman invited himself along when Flash blabbed about the possibility of the coasts being affected.” Robin listed off.

“Well, the oceans are Aquaman’s responsibility. He takes that very seriously,” Aqualad was the only one of them standing at attention. His eyes were used to the dimness of the water, giving him an edge in night-vision. “He is a very good king, and he does not wish to let down his people.”

Finch set aside her phone. “It sounds like you really respect him.”

“I do. He has been very kind to my family. I admire his heroism for Atlantis and the world.”

Emma’s mind suddenly swelled with curiosity about Atlantis, but before she could ask, the doors of the warehouse they’d been staking out blew open to smoke, and about ten dark-clothed thugs ran out, coughing violently.

“Is that fear gas?” Kid asked.

“Nah, that’s probably just Batman’s smoke pellets.” Emma shot her grappling cord at a tower of cargo containers. “Try to keep up, Gentlemen!” She sang, swinging off towards the escaping thugs. She landed on one, taking him out. Another got a kick to the jaw, and the other hit her in the back. She staggered forward to regain her balance, alone against nine. Maybe she should have waited for the boys, that way she wouldn’t have been alone in facing them.

The thugs said nothing, but grunted, swinging and lunging at her as she danced around them, doing what she could to stay out of their grip and take advantage of any openings.

“Finch, look out!” It took a moment for her to register the almost-unfamiliar voice before Aqualad shoved her out of the way of a thug sneaking up behind her, getting trapped in the bear hug grip instead. Aqualad refused to lose his cool, and took a deep breath. A blue glow started at his shoulders, twisting down his arms, and letting out a burst of bio-electricity that stunned his captor with a scream.

“Woah,” Wally’s eyes were wide with admiration.

Emma’s eyes were wide too.

His tattoos glowed a warm blue hue.

And they matched the marks hidden on Emma’s arms.

~

“Emma, get up.”

“No.”

“We’re gonna be late for school.”

“Go without me.”

“No.” Still in his PJs, Rick took a flying leap at Emma’s queen-sized bed and bounced until she threw off her covers and started bouncing with him.

“So you met your soulmate, huh?”

Emma bit her lip before she could bite back with a “You too”.

“I thought I was ready to meet them, but I guess I’m not,” She said, still bouncing.

“Well, you don’t have to tell him. Not yet, anyways,” He pointed out. “Me, however, I’m not gonna be able to hold this in for very long.” Emma suddenly wanted to shout out that Wally was Rick’s soulmate, but she held herself back.

“It feels wrong,” Emma said, landing on her butt. Rick landed next to her, bouncing a couple times.

“He’s from Atlantis. He should have been soulmates with someone from Atlantis, someone who understands his tattoos and markings and their cultural significance,” She traced the tattoo up her right arm, an eel, not a snake. Aqualad had told a nervously curious Wally last night. After the fight and noticing Aqualad’s tattoos, it was like someone had flipped a switch from casual to awkward. She couldn’t even look at him without turning bright red. According to the marks on her skin, this was the man she was destined to spend her life with, to fall in love with. And she had known him for less than a day.

“You could always learn more about Atlantis. Ask him, talk to him.” Rick pointed out. “I think Bruce gave Aquaman a water-proof cell phone for AL to use. I can look up his number if you want-”

“No, I can ask him next time we team up, thank you very much.” Emma interrupted.

She sighed. “It probably would be a good idea to start there, though.”

Rick hugged her, his arms around her neck. “It’ll all work out, you’ll see.” He promised.

Emma hugged his arms, holding her little brother. “Thanks, Rick.”

“Master Richard! Miss Emma! You’re going to be late for school!”

~

The team was formed a few months later. Roy refused entry to the kiddie club, leaving an opening for Superboy and Miss Martian, neither of whom had any markings for themselves or from their soulmates. Emma was ecstatic, though both she and Aqualad missed having Speedy around. Artemis came next, an arrow tattoo wrapped around her bicep, and Speedy became “Red Arrow”, to show that he was moving on.

In the Junior Justice League base of Mount Justice, hero aliases were traded for civilian ID’s and nicknames. Wally remained the only one in confidence of Finch and Robin’s secret ID’s, but other than the three of them, there was Conner, Megan, Artemis (yes, it was the same as her hero name), and Kaldur.

Kaldur’s maturity and level-headedness got him elected team leader, in charge of organizing missions and getting the ragtag team to work together. Emma found herself sticking close by to help out with paperwork and discussing team problems and training with Kaldur. Not just because she wanted to get to know Kaldur, but because she felt so comfortable with him. She could talk to him about how red skittles were clearly the best out of all skittles, and he would listen intently. She could ask him a rhetorical question and he would answer patiently, or he would help her find the answer. He put time and effort into her, and she did the same. He was still studying and experiencing Surface Culture, and Emma loved explaining things to him.

Time set aside for mission discussions more often than not turned into these discussions of almost nothing. Kaldur was quite businesslike, compared to everyone else, at least, but Rick insisted that he “melted” around Emma.

“Still think that fate made a mistake?” He asked.

Emma shrugged. “I feel guilty for hiding it now. What if he thinks I only spent time with him because he’s my soulmate and not because...” She trailed off.

“Because you really care about him?” Artemis asked, loudly sipping a can of pineapple juice stolen from Wally. She and Megan knew, of course. Those things tended to happen when you shared a locker room.

Emma shrugged. “I just don’t think I’m ready yet.”

The others were, though, and she could tell.

“It’s not their secret to tell.” Roy told her over the phone. “If any of them so much as blurt the world ‘soulmate’ in Kal’s direction before you give the okay, I’ll kick all their butts.”

“How do you put up with it?” She asked him. Roy was basically a best friend to both Emma and Kaldur. Keeping it a secret from one of them had to be hard.

“I’ll admit, it’s hilarious seeing you two blushing and talking like that and he apparently doesn’t get a clue.”

“You jerk!” Emma threw a pillow at the wall to substitute for throwing one at Roy.

“Seriously, Em,” His laughter had faded, “You like him, don’t you? And he likes you. What do you have to lose by telling him?”

~

Nothing. She had nothing to lose. Or did she? She couldn’t tell, and it drove her insane.

“Is something bothering you, Finch?” Aqualad asked.

“Dragonfire,” She reminded him, flexing her new wings. A gift from her old friend the Joker.

“Yes, of course. My apologies,” He still bowed his head formally. Emma liked it when he used Atlantean mannerisms.

“It’s okay, I like that you still call me that sometimes.” She liked it so much her stomach tickled. She passed it off as her new powers being irritating.

Raquel overheard, and like the others she had it.

“We have to set them up,” She declared to the team while Kaldur and Dragonfire were off doing “important paperwork”.

“Agreed,” Artemis pounded her fist on the island counter for emphasis.

“But how are we going to convince Dra that she should tell? The longer she waits, the more nervous she gets.” Wally said

“Shouldn’t we let them decide?” Conner tried to say.

The PA switched on in a burst of static. “Team, report to the mission room.”

According to intel from Batman, Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow, had escaped from Arkham Asylum and was hiding somewhere in Miami, Florida. The team’s mission was to find Scarecrow and whoever was helping him, and make it hard for Scarecrow to hurt anyone until Batman and the League could come in and deal with Scarecrow themselves.

While everyone else donned a tank top to go with their shorts, Emma stuck with her usual long-sleeved shirt in the Florida sun.

“Are you not hot in that?” Kaldur asked.

“I’m fine,” Dragonfire insisted with a smile. Several girls walked past, admiring Kal’s tattoos, and Emma turned away, just a little bit jealous. Of course, it was her own fault for not being more open about their marks in the first place. The team was split up patrolling the city. Kid Flash and Robin scouted out the perimeter, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis had the malls, Zatanna and Rocket had the streets, and Kaldur and Dragonfire had the beach. They walked in silence, side by side through the warm sand, keeping an eye out for any shady or straw-like figures.

And then Kaldur reached down and took Emma’s hand.

“Huh?” She didn’t realize that she’d said that out loud, as if he’d said something she’d misheard.

“I thought that it would sell our inconsequential appearance if we pretended to be a couple,” He said, “Is that alright?”

Emma smiled, thankful that her blush was hidden beneath her sunglasses and the brim of her floppy straw hat. “That’s just fine,” She assured him.

It wasn’t awkward, and it certainly wasn’t boring when Kaldur was around. There was no doubt about it, Emma knew that she was in love.

And then there were screams.

Emma tried to stop the crying child that was running down the beach, but she only screamed louder and ran in the other direction, avoiding anyone who reached out or stopped to try and help her, until she finally fell to her knees, curled up in a little ball. More kids were appearing with those symptoms, jumping at every little movement or sound. Fear gas.

No time to wait for the League, Dragonfire and Kaldur sprinted the way the kids had come.

“Aqualad to Team, come in, the symptoms of mass fear gas have been spotted on the beach. Rendezvous at our coordinates ASAP.”

“Kid Flash to Aqualad, Rob and I found the remains of a lab used to create fear gas about five miles inland.”

“Tag and bag the evidence, then come help us,” Dragonfire instructed. More and more people were screaming out of fear now, not just the kids.

They spotted Scarecrow out at sea, on a rickety old boat bobbing on the waves that were becoming more and more tumultuous every second. Had the clouds been that dark and ominous a second ago?

“Hold on!” Kaldur shouted. Emma wrapped her arms around his torso as he dove into the waves, holding on for dear life as he made for the boat like a torpedo. He shot out of the water and Emma spread her dragon wings, dropping him on the ship like a bomb. Scarecrow threw canisters of fear gas at both of them, but Emma fried them with her electricity, negating the anxiety-inducing abilities. Her fists crackled and her hair billowed with static as she hovered above the ship like a bird of prey, providing cover as Kaldur fought off Scarecrow’s guards. Emma went for the big man himself. It was strange to think that this was her old biology teacher, but given how teachers were treated in America, she really couldn’t blame him. She swept in with a hook to the jaw, sending him stumbling backwards.

“How do we stop it, Crane?” She demanded, going for intimidation. The guy liked fear, right?

“Such power...” Crane hissed, “Tell me, child, what scares a god like you?”

Emma shot him in the arm with another lightning bolt. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” Scarecrow grabbed at her shirt, tearing off some fabric. She threw him off with another blast of electricity that tore her shirt even more. It wasn’t made of the same durable stuff that her uniform was.

“Dragonfire!” Aqualad shouted, “I think we have been exposed to minimal effects of the fear gas!”

“Probably!” She agreed, ducking under Scarecrow’s hit. “Try to stay focused! You can fight it off!” She promised.

She turned back to Scarecrow, who now had an aerosol-like can pointed at her face, and sprayed before jumping over the side of the boat. His henchmen follow suit, and Dragonfire heard the sound of a submarine roaring away below the choppy waves.

“Dragonfire!” Aqualad caught her as she rubbed at her eyes, coughing violently.

“Dragonfire, Finch, hang on, you can fight it,” He urged, setting her down on the

Emma heard none of that, her ears were too clogged, no matter how she tried to shake off the fear gas.

She looked down at her arms, the sleeves of her shirt completely gone. Kaldur looked down and saw them too. He quickly pulled away, backing up several steps.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Finch’s voice quavered, echoing in her ears as Aqualad swam in and out of her vision.

It cleared long enough to see the disgusted look on his face.

She was out cold before she hit the water.

~

Emma awoke tangled in soft white sheets. She hugged herself, running her fingers against the rough ink. They itched more than ever now, reminding her of what happened on the boat.

Kaldur hated her. He had to. She hated herself.

“Good, you’re awake,” Black Canary smiled down at her kindly, approaching the side of her bed.

“You’re all right,” She said at the sight of tears flooding Emma’s eyes. “The fear gas should be just about flushed from your system by now. Aquaman and Batman are helping to oversee the cleanup of Miami Beach, and even though Scarecrow’s escaped, no one was killed. Wonder Woman and Flash are making sure that everyone receives a vaccination for the fear gas.”

That did little to assuage Emma’s rapidly beating heart. “Is Kaldur-” She stopped herself, “Is Aqualad okay?” She whispered.

Canary’s smile brightened. “That’s right! He’s your soulmate!” She patted Emma’s bare arm, “Just one moment, I’ll go get him for you.”

“No, Dinah wait-!” The door whisked shut behind Dinah before Emma could finish.

She leaped to her feet, shaking like jello. She had to get out of there, she couldn’t face Kaldur like this. She grabbed a change of clothes, lying on the counter, and tripped over her big feet. Seconds before she smacked into the linoleum, strong arms with too-familiar tattoos caught her, lifting her up.

“Hi,” Kaldur said, giving a small smile.

Emma pushed him away, falling back into the bed. “Go away,” She demanded, throat thick with tears.

Kaldur’s eyes went wide, glancing between his tattoos and the marks on Emma’s arms. “Finch? Are you alright?”

She shook her head, “Just leave me alone!”

“Finch, what is wrong?”

“Don’t call me that!” She screamed. “I get it, I’m not what you wanted in a soulmate, I’m sorry to disappoint you,” She sobbed.

“But even if you hate me, I have to tell you that I love you. I have been since I met you, before I even knew that we were soulmates.”

Now, Kaldur’s face was screwed up in confusion. He was usually so passive, it was strange to see him like this.

Having said that, Emma was unable to keep her mouth shut. “I love your sincerity and your honesty, your kindness and how much you care. I love your curiosity and fascination with every new thing you find out about the surface world. I love your patience and your smile and that little laugh you make when Rick and Wally are kidding around because we know they’re soulmates but they can’t tell. I didn’t want to tell you I was your soulmate because I wanted to make sure you liked me for me, and that I liked you not just because you were my soulmate.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the blanket in her hands, worried that it might tear if she held it too tight, but it was better than letting the tears she was holding back burst out.

There was she soft pad of bare feet on tile, and Kaldur’s rough but gentle hands brushed some hair from her face.

“I do not hate you, Finch. It would be impossible for me to do so.”

She gasped and opened her eyes. A few tears fell, but Kaldur helped her wipe them away. “I have loved you for a long time, but I hope you can forgive me for not coming forward with my feelings before.” He paused, taking her hand in his. “I was afraid that if you were not my soulmate, you would not be open to dating other people.”

She almost laughed, throwing her arms around him. Kaldur returned her embrace.

“I love how kind you are as well. Your impatience is endearing, and I find it amusing how I seem to be the only person you are patient with. I love how you are always so happy and smiling. I love how stubborn you are, and your commitment to justice for those who need it.

“And I love the fact that you are my soulmate.”

~

“Are you seriously getting nachos?” Artemis asked, looking at the stereotypical designs that were offered at the most popular tattoo parlor in Happy Harbor. “A lightning bolt would be ten times cooler.”

“Lightning is fleeting but food is forever,” Wally said, attempting to sound old and wizened.

“Yeah, at least until you eat it,” Rick snickered.

“I think I might get lightning,” Emma said. “Or maybe a tiny dragon.”

“Definitely get a dragon,” Raquel agreed, “There’s like fifty heroes who have lightning iconography. You’re the only one who’s got dragon wings.”

“What about Man-bat? Or Blue devil?” Wally pointed out.

“Dude, they’re a bat and a devil, not dragons.” Zatanna said, coming back from her seat with several magical sparkles sprinkled around her wrist like a bracelet. A few moments later, the same style appeared on Raquel’s wrist to go with the white comet on her forearm.

“My turn!” Wally declared with glee, hopping up to the table Zee had been at. “I want the first seven digits of Pi on my ankle,” He said, settling on a price with the tattoo artist.

“What about you, Conner, what are you getting?” Megan asked.

“I can’t get anything here, I’m too strong, but Clark has some tech at the Fortress he can use to put the Superman symbol on my bicep if I really want it.”

“And you do, don’t you?” M’gann giggled.

“Yes, I do.” He nodded firmly. “What are you getting?”

“I don’t know! There are so many cool designs!” She squealed.

“What do you think, Kal? It’s gonna be your tattoo too,” Emma leaned against his shoulder, wearing short sleeves in the summer for the first time in two years, arm in arm with her soulmate.

Kaldur held up the piece of paper he’d been doodling on. “How about this?” He asked, pointing to a small drawing in the corner. A pair of dragon wings, just like hers.

Emma beamed and kissed his cheek. “Perfect.”

[susandsnell]

it's been bugging me for a while now, but five worst parts of the dark Knight and one good part. bc I know you hate the movie 😂😂

boh. oh my gosh. b please don’t hate me.  😂😂

Five worst parts of the Dark Knight: 

5. The Filmmaking. More specfically: LONG AND WASHED OUT PALETTE. IT’S SO FUCKING LONG. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE OVER TWO AND A HALF HOURS WITH TEN PLOTS TO WRAP UP AND HAVE NO FUCKING COLOURS IN IT. WE GET IT, NOLAN, A MAN DRESSED UP AS A BAT BRINGS YOU NO JOY AND SO NOW WE HAVE TO NOT HAVE ANY JOY IN OUR HEARTS EITHER, THANKS A LOT. HERE I THOUGHT I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE FUN AT A MOVIE ABOUT BATMAN, BUT YOU SURE PROVED ME WRONG. 

4.  The Writing. Holy pretentious dialogue Batman! Where do I begin?Harvey Dent’s “I will state the theme of my arc in the most lazy and blatant foreshadowing speech until Emma Stone literally says she’s gonna die in the opening of The Amazing Spiderman 2″ gets quoted all the time and yes, superhero movies aren’t known for their subtlety, and not all great movies need to be subtle, but the “die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” is egregious not only for the reasons I stated, but is a nauseating indicator of the film’s cynicism (despite what the boat climax purports to be proving!). Alfred’s “some men just want to watch the world burn” speech is similar albeit less facepalmy and Theme Stating. It’s blunt and heavy-handed, overly expositional, and very hit-you-over-the-head with regard to commentary. 

And here’s the thing! It could work in the context of the type of movie it is - The Shape of Water pretty much opens with a statement of the “who the real monster is” idea, but it works because the film is a fairy tale and presents itself as such, whereas this movie wants to have its cake and eat it too as a “super adult DEEP subtle COMPLEX movie” with incredibly clear and simple shit like this. Beyond that,  Nolan really has a dialogue issue in a lot of his works where nobody just has a fucking conversation. Everything has to be the most serious issue in the world or a ten thousand word treatise on the fundamental dichotomies of human nature or some shit you’d hear in a freshman philosophy 101 course from that guy nobody can tolerate who thinks he’s G-d’s gift because he wears glasses or some shit, I don’t know. Even the Joker, an agent of chaos, gets wrapped up into it! Like he is a showman, but the yammering and rambles of shit that isn’t even that deep but pretends to be gets on my damn nerves. And the worst part is that it comes at the expense of the characters. 

They don’t really…develop emotional bonds (even with Rachel, the token woman And Therefore the Object At Which Emotions are Thrown). I’m not invested because none of these characters are real or relatable or have human interactions. The script shouldn’t be an anchor that drowns the actors and suffocates the characters to the point that there’s no chemistry, no connection, no believable core. Alfred is practically Bruce’s father and I get no love out of them! Harvey and Bruce don’t connect at all! Lucius Fox, the only POC in the entire movie, is literally reduced to a plot device despite having moral concerns! 

3. That damn third act. This one takes special mention because it just pisses me off. It’s just too much! The chase with the Joker would be fine, but that’s not the end. His plot already extends way beyond where it would logically end (hence the bullshit runtime), but on top of that, on top of the drama with the escape ferries hammering you over the head with the point they’re trying to make about humanity and the obnoxious moralizing, and then you have Harvey’s fall to the dark side which I’m sorry, needed a lot more time than just getting crammed in to the back end of the movie. His descent into evil happened way too quickly. Two-Face is a great villain! But take Batman the Animated series (to me, the best adaptation of Batman there is, while not perfect) as an example: he’s established as a character and his descent into Two-Face receives the full focus of entire episodes and impacts the characters later on! Having him play sideshow to the Joker is a huge mistake, especially with something as huge at play as threatening Gordon’s family; it completely disrupts the focus of the plot and unnecessarily prolongs the film as a whole, but he goes down pretty easily in one of the movie’s shitty-ass fight sequences that I’d make their own point if there weren’t worse things because I can’t tell who’s punching who. And if you’re gonna rush Dent into villainy only to kill him, that makes his whole plot kinda a waste.

And The Dark Knight Rises was a lot more criticized than the Dark Knight, so how’s this for a fix for the entire trilogy? Don’t kill Two-Face. Keep Joker getting carted away gloating about having corrupted him, but then have Two-Face get away too.  Don’t make whitewashed lamely written Bane the villain of the next movie - instead, let the tail end of this movie build Two-Face up as the main villain for the final part! That way, you have more time for development, cohesiveness, consequences, exploration of themes, and you don’t waste characters. 

2.  Batman / Bruce Wayne’s entire character. Okay, so whenever I fawn over the Lego Batman movie and how it confronts the issue with modern portrayals of Bats and rightfully points out it’s not deep, he’s just a humongous dick, this feels like the source material of that popular portrayal. Of course, it pre-dates it in the comics - Miller and company are to blame for Grimdark Asshat who Batmansplains, but I feel like Dark Knight especially, for its success and greater accessibility as a film, is what widely propagated this portrayal. 

Secret identity or cape and cowl, there is a serious issue in your Batman movie if your Batman is terrible. He’s the protagonist, the titular character, and he’s fucking terrible! At best, Bruce Wayne is like…completely deadpan and not even there (I don’t give Bale shit because I think a lot of the fault lies with the writing/direction, Ledger was pretty much the only lively performance in the movie), placeholder of a protagonist. At worst, he comes off as deeply self-centered, self-aggrandizing, entitled, and violently unstable. I don’t care how bad the Joker is, when in custody, he still had legal rights, and Batman fucking tortured him. Even brutal criminals should not ever be tortured for information! And the film never engages with Bats reaching the point of beating people to a pulp as means of interrogation; he just feels conflicted about who’s worse and broods over it after the fact instead of, I don’t know, maybe thinking twice about torturing someone. The darker Marvel Netflix shows have their characters doing a lot of grim things, but the narrative or other characters almost always holds them accountable for it in ways beyond “aww, I feel kinda sad that I beat mentally ill people to a bloody pulp” – it challenges them often, or has other characters call them out. Batman just does this shit and people are like “oh you shouldn’t do that” and he’s like “AHHH I’M A MONSTER” and it borders into uncomfortable real-life implications with regard to authority and violence. There’s something to be said for introducing grey morality into superhero media, and I get the anti-hero thing, but Dark Knight codified the “white guy grimdark antihero being actually just a terrible fucking person who is the good guy in name only” deal we see in a lot of our media today.

It’s one thing to have a complex and flawed protagonist, but you have to balance that out with redeeming qualities, otherwise, he’s not even a fucking superhero! Again, I refer back to the 90s animated series: Batman has his moments of ruthlessness, but it’s balanced out with the philanthropy work we see in Bruce Wayne, and moments of genuine compassion that he shows many of his enemies – he apologizes genuinely to Two-Face, often tries to give them an out, and is frequently super kind to Harley Quinn, bringing her the dress she was accused of stealing when she was sent back to Arkham in the episode where she tried to redeem herself, and frequently trying to get her to acknowledge that the Joker is abusive towards her, as well as convince her she can still start over and be a good person. On top of which, Batdad is super popular in both the show and the comics. He’s frequently shown as having an especial soft spot for children; addition to all his adopted kids, you also have a lot of his interactions with children, whether as Bruce or as Batman, marked by gentleness, care, and compassion, largely based on what he went through as a child. 

You get no such moment in the Dark Knight. I cannot for the life of me think of kids who would go to see this as a Batman movie and leave looking up to Batman and wanting to be like him except on the surface level of wearing a cool costume and punching bad guys. There is nothing heroic or admirable about this Bruce. He fights crime as a vigilante - brutally, I might add -and this time, it comes off more as a desire for vengeance than a desire for justice, a point which the film raises, but ultimately doesn’t resolve or engage with in a satisfying character arc. 

The closest thing we get to humanizing this character is his relationship with Rachel, and even then, his interactions with her have heavy shades of Friendzoned Nice Guy which is especially bullshit because he won’t pursue a relationship with her yet is bitter about any decisions she might make about her own love life. He doesn’t even care about her that much as anything more than a conquest! He really doesn’t, and Alfred tearing up the letter proves that – with regards to how he behaves towards her, it really feels like it’s not so much that the letter would break his heart as it is that he’d resent her beyond the grave! 

Worse yet, he gives no shits about anyone else. This has a lot to do with Nolan’s scripts having a toxic masculinity problem where it’s not cool for guys to sympathize with or have emotional bonds amongst themselves, but like… he’s allies in a shared venture with the other characters, and nothing more. Alfred is practically his dad but you wouldn’t know that. Gordon, as revealed in TDKR, was kind to him after his parents’ deaths, but they’re just partners. Harvey is a rival for claiming a woman!  In other adaptations, Bruce and Harvey’s friendship is fleshed out a lot so the guilt and shock of his transformation into Two-Face is really impactful! Here, Bruce doesn’t really give a shit beyond it just being another thing to do. 

And that’s what heroism and motivations are to Batman in this - just a thing to do. I don’t want to watch a hero who’d rather bitch about doing good than actually just fucking do good, this is the safety of your city, not a school essay! He doesn’t really seem to want to help people, he wants to complain about people, but then thinks he’s so fucking special and such a snowflake martyr for still helping them regardless! It’s such a deeply childish and yes, toxically male mentality. I know it’s become a meme, but the ”I’m not the hero Gotham needs, but the hero that it deserves” line pisses me off so much for this reason, as well as the fact that he thinks that Gotham’s flaws justify the fact that he beats the fuck out of people and roars in their face to get answers; I think the perfect refutation to both that line and how a superhero protagonist that explores what heroism means can actually be found in Wonder Woman – “It’s not about deserve, it’s about what you believe.” In fact, that’s what made Wonder Woman so good (and feminist!) – it’s rejection of toxic masculine ideals and emphasis on love, compassion and vulnerability being one’s strength, and that people are inherently deserving of being saved if you believe in the good of the world - a much better treatise on good and evil than “see, people sometimes don’t explode boats but they still suck so it’s okay for a billionaire in furry cosplay to beat the shit out of mentally ill people because that’s what this city deserves, a guy who’s more into violence than saving people.” He just doesn’t care, so why the hell should we?

And there’s just no arc. He just reacts to shit and that’s it, which makes him boring when he’s not being a fucking maniac. Despite the script not allowing him to have feelings for other human beings, having him break his no-kill rule with Harvey at the end would have been impactful….had he not already broken it in Batman Begins by leaving White Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson I love you but there is no reason to have whitewashed him or Talia the way Nolan did in the series - same as he did with Bane and arguably Catwoman since she’s been portrayed as a WOC many times before, actually come to think of it, there is a LOT of whitewashing in this trilogy) to his death. 

The film comes up with no real way to challenge it’s hero, have him grow, or change, or even show consequences for his failure to change, making him come off as stunted, unlikeable, and yeah, not much of a hero.

1. The sexism. (You knew this was coming, and yes, it is the worst part). I already mentioned how the men in this movie all fall prey to toxic masculinity as is common with Nolan characters, then even more characteristic of a Nolan movie is The Dead Girlfriend, Wife, or Daughter (you know, the only three things women could ever be!) of Sad White Guy(s). Rachel is the only female character (strike one) and she is handled nothing short of atrociously. Her entire job as a lawyer, intelligence, and hard work established in Batman Begins (which is also too grimdark but actually doesn’t piss me off half as much!) is hardly even mentioned and takes a backseat to her being a prize for the men (including her boss!) to throw feelings at and squabble over. While the male characters have no personality except for one characteristic and a goal because this script was written by an edgy thirteen year old boy, Rachel has no personality except to be a living emotional crutch/plot device. She does not exist as an autonomous individual outside her relationships to the men in the movie. Shit, she’s barely autonomous within these relationships! Bruce is a bitter little shit about her not wanting him back and we’re supposed to feel for him despite him literally offering her nothing relationship-wise for two movies and actively pushing her away at times! He feels he can’t be with her, but the framing is such that she shouldn’t have the right to be with anyone else, either! What the hell? I would even go so far as to say that her choosing Harvey just as she gets blown up, as well as how both of them got to that point, almost feel like the narrative punishing her for not wanting Bruce. More male entitlement bullshit. 

 And her fate…well, I mean. There’s a damn reason The Dark Knight is my go-to example when I want to explain what Fridging/Stuffed in the Fridge means. After having every possible stereotypical pigeonholed white girl trope tossed at her, Rachel is killed off callously for the character development and man angst of not one, but two self-obsessed stubbled white guys who make it about themselves and their right to act like phenomenal turds. She’s Helen of Troy – a woman blamed for people’s reactions to her (Harvey becoming Two-Face, Batsy or Bruce being saaaaaad, etc). She’s the Lost Lenore; a person reduced to how their death impacts their romantic interests.  We have reached peak Nolan here, and frankly, peak Batman too, because the franchise (comics, movies, etc) has always had this same problem with its treatment of women. Her fucking death isn’t even about her! It’s Harvey’s fucking villain origin and Bruce’s sad ending and Alfred’s resentment and note-burning and would she have waited, oh boo hoo, how about, did she have a fucking family, what would have happened if she hadn’t been murdered young, et fucking cetera. 

The thing that really gets me is that Rachel is by no means the worst treated woman in speculative fiction (especially not those that make a claim to some degree of intellectualism); she’s white, so her death is beautifully tragic and she’s put on a pedestal rather than being subjected to racialized misogynistic tropes (being treated more roughly by the narrative, having her suffering ignored or erased altogether, her death being callously ignored except for a throwaway line of dialogue, etc), she’s not unnecessarily and gratuitously sexually brutalized for shock value (that looks uncomfortably like fetishism at times) like the women on Game of Thrones or in nu!Bond movies, or, if we’re still in the Batman universe, Barbara Gordon in any iteration of the Killing Joke (which is another tentpole of misogyny in the Batman universe and I fucking hate it and it clearly influenced the Dark Knight, so, chicken, egg). She isn’t forcibly sterilized and her inability to get pregnant treated as making her a freak like AOU Black Widow. She has no pointless and insulting fanservice scenes like Carol Marcus in her underwear in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Her suffering is not treated as empowerment like any number of women written by Joss Whedon, she isn’t used to be chewed up and spat out and destroyed in a romance with either a guy who terrifies her and in whom she’s shown no prior romantic interest or an outright villain who has caused her nothing but pain in some stupid half-assed not-redemption arc where she has to sublimate herself and be stupidly forgiving beyond the willing suspension of disbelief so some horrible man can evolve.

But why this sexism sticks out to me is that it’s so insidious; if it were more on the nose like the examples I listed above, it’d almost be less jarringly offensive, but it masquerades as her being an empowered yet tragic character and weaves into an overall narrative that validates all the tropes I mentioned, and legitimizes itself in a way that feels fundamentally dishonest about how sexist it’s being. Worse yet, there’s the fact that The Dark Knight is more than just self-contained; its influence on not just comic book movies, but all kinds of media as we know it, is undeniable. And as far as setting the example goes? This hugely well-regarded, influential film is almost entirely white, and tells us that women exist as distractions, tragedies, and extensions of men’s storylines, and this bullshit has been echoing in similar media works since. 

AND NOW, THE ONE (or multiple!) NICE THING(S): 

All this being said, I admit there actually are a lot of things I like about this movie if I can separate them enough from the main issues! 😂For one thing, Hans Zimmer’s work on the score is top-notch; I listen to Like a Dog Chasing Cars and Harvey Two-Face all the time and the music alone provokes stronger emotions for the characters than anything in the movie actually did. The opening heist is just fantastically entertaining, and up until the messy third act, the pacing and plot is pretty tight and engaging! Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is of course fantastic; although he’s not my favourite Joker, he really gave it his all, and is by and large the highlight of the film. Nolan is really good with visual appeal (with the exception of that damn colour palette) and the shots are fantastic. I really love the chase scene with the Joker and wish the rest of the movie held my excitement like that.  

Finally, it’s odd to say this, but I really like the world of the movie once I ignore the characters and plot. The Gotham that was built in Nolan’s trilogy, the contrast between the classes with the lavish receptions and dinners versus the underbelly, the corruption versus the goodness, how these disparate elements work in a terrible symbiosis, the architecture and technology reflecting this character – it’s incredibly vivid, both grounded in reality and yet sufficiently speculative fiction-y enough to be intriguing. I just wish that the people in it matched the quality of the setting. 😂😂😂

[dramaclover]

Ending & Thoughts: The Witness

I was pretty excited for this drama. And you might think I’m crazy since a lot of people thought airing this drama is a waste of a slot. And I get it they could’ve aired bigger dramas. Chances are TVB only aired it so Him Law could get a Best Actor Nomination which they need to fill out the quota for it. Or else it’s gonna end up being saturated with supporting actors from Come Home Love again like last year. But the premise of it is interesting! Instead of a Prince Charming protecting the gorgeous female witness (like all witness protection type dramas). We get a down on the luck rookie cop protecting a straight forward OCD guy. It’s a cute twist to it and the start of bromance.

Plot

Ah Kei (Him Law) saves Ah Fan (Willie Wai) after he witnesses a murder. Ah Fan is placed in witness protection program but because of his strange personality that makes it hard to trust others he wouldn’t allow anyone but Ah Kei who saved his life to protect him. Ah Kei ends up living with Ah Fan to protect him. That’s how he gets entangled with Chris (Kelly Cheung) and end up falling in love. Ah Kei’s older sister Miss Ko (Pinky Cheung) gets involved by falling for Ah Fan. The main case of this drama is finding Ah Fans missing memories from years ago which is also connected with Ah Kei’s fathers death.

The drama is fun to watch. The acting was great from everyone. Kelly is still a bit stiff and has a slight accent but she was still super enjoyable to watch. But the storyline started to falter a bit. It got plagued with annoying side characters and the main leads themselves are dumbed down when the story started focusing more on the mystery behind the fathers death.

- Annoying character #1 belongs to Kam Chi Sing (King Lam). I know every drama there has to be a rival. But boy, he’s just so annoying. All he cared about was getting a promotion. And always arguing with Ah Kei cause he’s such a proud guy that he’s always undermining him. Always getting in the way for Ah Kei to solve cases and he would bring up Ah Kei’s dead father just to rile him up. I’m so glad that even his followers under him stopped listening to him. That was such a good moment for him to realize everyone is tired of his shit and moved on from him. He was despicable from beginning to end. There was no redemption from him. His smirk is downright cocky.

- Annoying character #2 goes to Ah Kei’s ex-girlfriend Yuki (Sammi Cheung). She’s always spending her time shopping which is how she always racks up her credit card debt. In which she decides to borrow money to pay it off. It causes loan sharks to chase after her & always needing Ah Kei’s help to solve it. Her character is infuriating. She lives with Ah Kei rent free, eats for free & has been with him for 10 years. Yet she goes and cheats on him. And when she gets caught she makes up a lie to get him to believe her. In the end when Ah Kei finds out the truth she blames him. WTH. She blames him for not caring about her enough & how she doesn’t defend her when her sister calls her out on things. Nevermind the fact that he’s always running around scraping for money to pay off your debt. Nevermind how he’s always treated you well despite your spending habits. It’s HIS FAULT that she ended up cheating. It’s disturbing that while she’s cheating she’s finding all these ways to hide it while still living with him. And when she witnessed something that could save Ah Fan from wrongly getting arrested she chooses to ignore it so she can continue her affair. Ugh. I hate cheaters especially ones that feign innocent and blames the other partner. Like own up to your wrong doings.

- Annoying character #3 is given to Yip Cheung Lok (Lau Kong). He’s always flip flopping on his emotions. Years ago he finds out his son Gordon (Tsui Wing) was involved with a kidnapping- murder case. He decides to protect him by sending him to America. And years later when he finds out his son has done more horrible things like committing more murders. At first he’s like “I’m gonna call the cops, you’re going to jail” and then the next minute he shuts his mouth to protect his son. He’s always apologizing and trying to “fix” things which just made things worse. Instead of leaving Chun Po (Helen Ma) alone he instead tricks her to live with them. This is the reason why she died cause she kept spouting details about what happened in the past to Gordon. When he realized all the wrong doings of his son. He does nothing to stop it. I get it he’s sick in bed. But he was able to leave and walk. His son isn’t watching him 24/7. He could have easily picked up the phone and call Ah Fan to warn him about Gordon. He didn’t even have to call the cops to get Gordon arrested. The bare minimum for him to do would be at least try to stop Gordon from taking over Ah Fans fathers company. But he did nothing. In the end he died because his own son attacked him & basically left him to die. Sad but fitting end for him considering he’s the one that let his son spiral this out of control. Gordon committing the first crime could be a mistake, but committing a second and third? That’s no longer a mistake but a choice.

The Love Triangle

Pretty annoying. Chris and Ah Kei has cute chemistry. And I really like how it developed they saw each other in a different light. I was disappointed that they dragged out the triangle though. Ah Kei bothered me with how he handled Yuki. I understand that you dated Yuki for 10 years so it’s hard for him to just abandon her. But really? Letting Yuki live with you while dating Chris? Anyone would be pissed. Chris has the right to get mad. Yuki & Ah Kei didn’t have a amicable breakup she cheated and threw a fit about how she’s right and he’s wrong. The next time they saw each other she slaps Ah Kei believing he assaulted her new boyfriend. Yuki girl. You dated Ah Kei for 10 years and you’d rather believe your new boy toy then the guy that stood by you all these years? This is an example of why Ah Kei doesn’t need to go that far to help Yuki. Ah Kei is so oblivious to how Yuki is trying to break apart his relationship with Chris. She sabotaged almost all their dates. I thought Yuki would redeem herself wholly once she realized how much Ah Kei loved Chris but instead she runs to find a Chris & demands her to leave him and stop stringing him along. Then they try to redeem Yuki by having her do the bare minimum to help Chris find Ah Kei. In the end they become good friends which I find unnecessary. I rather have it end with them bumping into each other & wishing each other well. Yuki has made one too many mistakes to earn the right to stay in their lives.

The Randomness

Apart from the annoying characters & love triangle. The character development of Ah Fan went downhill. Ah Fan goes through three amnesiac phases. And the first two involved him forgetting what happened during specific time periods. The third one, he forgets his sister and his friends including Ah Kei & Miss Ko. Now at first it was endearing of him trying to re-learn his past but then it turns awful when he gets used by Gordon. Which I don’t understand. Miss Ko lies to him about her being his fiancé & his sister went along with it. This gets him mad that they lied to him & he goes to live with Gordon. He wouldn’t even listen to their explanations. When Chris tells him that he never dated Gordon he refused to believe her & thought she was playing Gordon with Ah Kei. It was very hard to watch from here on. Seeing him turned into someone different. By that I meant he was no longer the smart thinker he once was. No matter what happens Chris is your sister. Your only blood relative left & yet he chooses to believe Gordon? Ignoring the fact he no longer cares or trusts Chris. He should at least sympathize the fact that this company that he chose to sign over to Gordon was the last of his fathers hardwork. Even if Ah Fan doesn’t want to be involved with the company, he could’ve passed it on to Chris his blood sister. And I’m just so confused and find it random. Before he lost his memories he doted and loved his sister, always wanting to protect her. He even moved out of their house to live with Ah Kei to protect his sister from getting hurt. They had a tight bond. Even if he loses his memories wouldn’t the familiar feeling stay? The way he tells Chris that he chooses to trust & picks Gordon over her was so heartbreaking. I refuse to believe Ah Fan would ever do that memory loss or not. Also Ah Fan is incredibly smart. He’s able to recognize smells, footsteps and even sound of voices. He’s also able to tell if someone is lying at times. You want me to believe all this time he stayed with Gordon he didn’t find anything suspicious with Gordon & his father? He lost his memory, not his brain. Gordon literally hasn’t even done anything ground breaking for Ah Fan to trust him so deeply. I was also convinced that Ah Fan was faking amnesia to get close to Gordon to build a case on him. But turns out he was just dumb & easily fooled. Even at the very end it caused him getting his memory back for him to finally realize Gordon is evil. Ah Fan went way out of character after the amnesia.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know how I feel about whether or not I’d re-watch. The beginning and middle was fun and hilarious. I think it would be better if you watch it solely for the comedic side that involved friendship, sibling bond & relationships. If you want to watch it for the crime aspect you’d be disappointed. As for this drama they dumbed down the heroes to drag on the cases to fit the 20 episode quota. They could’ve written more cases instead of dragging the three cases but I guess the writer got lazy. The writer chose to prolong it instead of writing a fresh case. The final case involving the mystery of the parents death was dragged on way too long. Ah Kei didn’t even realize Gordon killed them until the very end. He just believed Gordon is involved but not the mastermind. Also I’m shocked that Gordon would end up being such a hardcore villian. In the beginning he was just another spoiled rich boy. I always thought he made mistakes because he was pampered & wanted more money. The fact Gordon killed years ago and went on to kill more people & even offed his own father was something I didn’t expect happening. Especially since this is supposed to be considered a light comedic cop drama, I never thought it would go as far as family killing. I also hoped that there would be more bromance between Ah Kei & Ah Fan. I was sorely disappointed that their interactions afterwards just involved him pressuring Ah Fan to regain his memory instead of an actual friend bonding LOL. All in all it was a good watch. Willie Wai gave an impressive & eye catching portrayal. Honestly if we’re talking about TV King, Willie should win. He has always been a solid actor & his performance was great and he recieved a lot of praises. He didn’t come off as annoying with his OCD & strange personality. Despite his character going off the walls in the later episodes he still acted very well. Unfortunately the drama got sub par ratings so him winning is very unlikely. Also along with the fact TVB has no plans on promoting him. (He only got this role cause TVB literally ran out of older actors). But my vote goes to Willie to win nonetheless. I guess I’d probably re-watch the beginning again and just skip the unnecessary amnesia arc.

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

AK Monthly Recap: November 2017

Happy December, everyone! It’s hard to believe the year is nearly over. For me, once again, this was a low-key month, mostly spent at home. I’m savoring these times before I strike up my busy winter travel schedule.

Destinations Visited

New York, New York

Reading and Lynn, Massachusetts

Nashua and Merrimack, New Hampshire

Las Vegas, Nevada

Favorite Destination

Viva Las Vegas. It was so good to be back!

Highlights

Finishing Whole30 — a perfect 33 days. When I began Whole30 — 30 days of no sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy, legumes, or artificial flavors — I worried that I wouldn’t be able to resist temptation. That wasn’t the case at all! I was sad that I couldn’t keep going!! I ended up lasting for 33 days and felt so much better as a result. See more about that in the Fitness Update section below.

Spending Thanksgiving at home. Two American Thanksgivings in a row after spending six outside the country? That was a very good thing. Even if eating the pie sent me into major stomach pains following Whole30.

My 15-year high school reunion. How have 15 years passed already?! My class had an informal reunion at a nearby bar, and while I didn’t expect many people to show up, I was delighted that so many of my classmates came. And everyone looked the same to me — I guess the RMHS Class of 2002 is a well-aging bunch.

I was a little worried that I would be the odd woman out, as it seems like everyone in my class is married and/or popping out kids these days, but it turns out that most people at the reunion were unmarried without kids as well! Ha. And it was really nice to hear from classmates who have become readers of the blog.

I was featured on ABC 7 New York. The local news station is doing a series of video features on local influencers. I talked to them about my life, career, and travels. You can check the whole thing out here.

A return to Las Vegas! The trip began on November 30, so I’ll mention more in next month’s recap, but the highlights of the first day were eating at Gordon Ramsay Steak (and if you see an American Rib Cut on a steak menu anywhere, GET IT — it’s crazy good) and the sheer luck of having a row of three seats to myself on a six-hour flight.

Challenges

I got hit with some bad news at the end of the month. Nothing truly awful like death or illness, nor is it work- or business-related, nor is it anything juicy or gossipy, but it’s bad news anyway, and for reasons you’ll understand later, I’m keeping it private at the moment. It’s basically a huge disappointment compounded by a logistical pain in the ass, and it’s going to cost me a good amount of money. Fun times.

In other words, please be patient with me over the next few months, especially if you know me in real life. I’ll talk about it once things are settled.

There was a huge fire in my neighborhood. Six alarms and more than 300 firefighters were on the scene. Thankfully, neither my sister nor I were in danger, nor were any of our friends, and the injuries were miraculously minimal, but a lot of my neighbors have lost their homes. We’ve been raising money and collecting donations for them.

Most Popular Post

The Best Gifts for Travelers: 2017 Edition — I retool my gift guide with some great 2017 additions!

Other Posts

Solo Female Travel in Thailand — Is it Safe? — Everything women need to know about traveling in Thailand.

Chisinau and Minsk: Two Offbeat Soviet Cities — Two of the lesser visited capitals of Europe.

The 8 Best Old Towns in Europe — I narrow it down to my absolute favorites.

The Best Halloween Dogs in Hamilton Heights, Harlem — So many adorable Halloween doggos!

Most Popular Photo on Instagram

Hard to argue with a very rare view: a New York sunset without a single cloud in the sky, taken from one of the best viewpoints in the city: the Staten Island Ferry. For more live updates from my travels and New York in real time, follow me on Instagram at @adventurouskate.

Fitness Update

Whole30 is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my body. Stripping out sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy and lots of other things made my body suddenly start working far more efficiently. Altogether, I lost 8.8 pounds of fat and gained 0.8 pounds of muscle. That’s pretty much best case scenario for what my body can do in a month.

And one benefit that I didn’t expect was that my workouts with my trainer suddenly improved by leaps and bounds. For several weeks, I was struggling to do squats properly while holding kettlebells — and then suddenly it clicked and I was doing them perfectly. I was curving my back during kettlebell swings, then BAM — perfect swings. Bigger deadlifts, too.

I tried Pilates for the first time in October, and it’s since become a major part of my fitness regimen. I love it! It’s so weird, because I always get bored and exasperated at yoga and I always feel like I’m dying in barre, but Pilates is the happy medium. I feel so strong and aligned after I do it.

And finally — I’m doing Couch25K again! Couch25K is a running plan that takes you from being a couch potato to being able to run a 5K (3 miles, or about 30 continuous minutes) at once.

You might recall that I started Couch25K two years ago, got injured, and never picked up running again. Well, like many people, that was because I pushed myself too hard too fast. This time I’m determined to do it right — not running too hard or too often, stretching well, cross-training appropriately, and only increasing the intensity slowly. If this works out, I’ll be racing by spring.

What I Watched This Month

Can we talk about This Is Us? Can we talk about how I can’t decide if I want Randall Pearson to be my husband, my dad, my brother, or my kid? It’s disconcerting. If you’re not watching, you can get started on Hulu and catch up…

What I Listened To This Month

One podcast that I really enjoyed this month was More Perfect’s episode about Citizens United. More Perfect is a fabulous podcast about the Supreme Court; it explains some of the Court’s more notable cases in an interesting way that non-lawyers can understand.

I didn’t know as much as Citizens United as I should have — looking back, I realize it was because the case was decided in January 2010, which was the month that my life blew up, leading me to start this blog and travel the world. It was a crazy time; no wonder I wasn’t following the news beyond the bare minimum.

So listening to this podcast was incredible — while I only knew the basics of Citizens United, I feel like I understand all the nuances of it inside and out now. What a catastrophe, and what terrible results for America.

What I Read This Month

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton (2017) — I didn’t want to read this book at first. Reliving the election was the last thing I wanted to do; I thought it would be too painful. So what changed my mind? Seeing so many people, from journalists to internet randos, saying that Hillary should just sit down and shut up.

Fuck that. Seriously. You’re saying that the first woman ever to be nominated by a major political party, a woman who won the last election’s popular vote by nearly three million votes, deserves to be silenced for the rest of her life? No. Al Gore and John Kerry and John McCain and Mitt Romney didn’t get the same treatment.

So I read the book. And I really liked it. It was a deep delve into the election from Hillary’s perspective, and honestly it felt so damn good just to hear her voice speak through her writing. So if you’re like me and you weren’t going to read What Happened because you thought it would be too painful, I encourage you to do so anyway. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Chemistry by Weike Wang (2017) — What happens when your world drops out from beneath you? In this book, an unnamed narrator, a Chinese-American student working on her Ph.D. at an elite Boston university, has a breakdown. She can’t decide whether to continue pursuing her doctorate or whether she wants to marry her perfectly nice boyfriend, and when compounded by pressure from her parents, she slides deep into indecision, letting the world decide for her.

This book is sweet, and short, and gentle — but what surprised me the most about it was that it read as a lesson in how to be kind to yourself, how to forgive yourself, and how to find joy and meaning after giving up the life you always thought you’d have.

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood (2017) — I like to think that the best memoirs are by people with exceptional life stories, told in an exceptional way. Most memoirs are only one or the other, but I don’t think a single memoir has been equally strong in both areas as Priestdaddy. Patricia Lockwood grew up with a Catholic priest for a father (yes, the Vatican allows some clergy from other Christian denominations to convert to priesthood, even if they’re married and have kids, and it’s rare but it does happen). And the story is told beautifully because Lockwood is a poet. Every sentence is a work of art.

The memoir covers the nine-month period that Lockwood and her husband lived at the rectory with her parents to save money, as well as some childhood anecdotes. Basically, her father is a guitar-jamming, nudity-loving, abortion-protesting larger-than-life character, and her mother and four siblings are various shades of quirky and hilarious as well. I’ve never read a book remotely like this before. Just one warning — Lockwood’s prose is so detailed, each word placed carefully, that reading it will probably take you longer than you think. This is a book to savor, not speed through.

Practical Curiosity by Alex Berger (2017) — I am a big fan of my friend Alex’s writing on his site, Virtual Wayfarer, so when he released his first full-length book of observations on life, love, and travel, I was eager to dig in. Alex has a perspective that I’ve always valued — we’re about the same age, but he has the wisdom and insight of someone much older, and I love how he puts his thoughts into words.

If you’d like to look at your life a bit differently, add more adventure and curiosity to your life, or nod in appreciation about how much long-distance relationships suck, this is a great (and cheap!) book to check out.

Coming Up in December 2017

No travel plans other than the remaining days in Las Vegas that I just finished. I should be home in Massachusetts for Christmas, though.

And it’s a good thing that my upcoming Antarctica trip was postponed from December to March, since I now have to spend December taking care of the issue that I mentioned in the “challenges” section above.

That said, I love Decembers on the blog because I get to write my best and worst of the year posts! Get ready for posts on the best and worst moments of the year, as well as my favorite new destinations and favorite books of the year.

What are you up to this December? Share away!

The post AK Monthly Recap: November 2017 appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

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